Commerce Foundation Property Metadata
A Property commerce entity type has properties that represent metadata relevant to each property of each relevant commerce entity type. A Microsoft Multi-Channel Commerce Foundation query operation could return the specific metadata for a specific Commerce Entity type. An application design tool (such as a web part edit pane) could use this metadata to populate a list of properties for a specified item type. The data structure's underlying property metadata may also contain information utilized by the Commerce Server 2009 Broker.
Properties
The properties of the Property Commerce Entity type are:
Property |
Description |
|---|---|
Type |
The model name of the commerce entity type associated with this metadata. |
Property |
The name of the property associated with this metadata. |
Groups |
A Commerce Server Core Systems catalog has multiple product types, with each type associated with a subset of the properties defined for the catalog. |
DisplayName |
The name of the commerce entity property that is meaningful to a page designer. |
Description |
A description of the metadata that is meaningful to a page designer. Ideally a multilingual description can be used. |
DataType |
The Data Types supported by Commerce Server 2009. |
Validation |
Commerce Server 2009 (or Commerce Server Core Systems) enforces these validation rules that specify allowable property values. Commerce Server Core Systems supports maximum string length, minimum and maximum integer value. |
Format |
Default display format. This output formatting should not be confused with conversions performed according to regional settings. A use case might be “display only a specified number of significant digits”. |
Choices |
A list of acceptable input values delimited by a separator character. An enumerated value might be displayed as a drop list. |
ProviderID |
The name of the provider that retrieves data for this commerce entity property. |
CSProperty |
The name of the Commerce Server Core Systems object model property that accesses data for this commerce entity. |
CSClass |
The name of the Commerce Server Core Systems object model class that accesses data for this commerce entity. |
Data Types
The Microsoft Multi-Channel Commerce Foundation Data Types of the Property Commerce Entity type are:
Display Type |
Commerce Foundation Type |
|---|---|
Binary |
Byte array |
Boolean |
Boolean |
Choice list (multilingual?) |
Integer |
Currency |
Decimal |
String (with max length?) |
String |
Password |
String |
Image |
A string containing a file path or URL |
Multivalued string |
A string with separator character |
Multilingual string (or rely on multilingual rich text?) |
String |
Rich text (XHTML) (multilingual) |
String |
Date |
DateTime |
Date-no-year |
DateTime |
Date-time |
DateTime |
Time |
DateTime |
String (Implies specific input validation) |
|
Float (with precision?) |
Double |
URL |
String (Implies specific input validation) |
Unique identifier |
GUID |
Integer |
Integer |
A single Commerce Entity |
Relationship |
A collection of Commerce Entities |
RelationshipList |
See Also
Other Resources
Working with Metadata in Commerce Foundation
Commerce Foundation Metadata Repository Design
Commerce Foundation Metadata Flow Through Rules